God Never Wastes Pain…

As many of you know…A few years ago while on duty, a couple of guys tried to kill me and because of my injuries the doctors mandated that I retire in my law enforcement career as a Detective Sergeant and SWAT team member.

In one of my darkest seasons of depression, feelings of failure and difficulties involving PTSD a friend of mine came to me with an encouraging word that I will never forget. He said, “Aaron, one thing is for certain, God never wastes pain…”

At that time I had a lot of pain… both emotionally and physically as I spent several months in physical therapy and the next year on a psychiatrists couch trying to work through so many issues that at the time made no sense. But God is faithful!

It’s crazy how, as a pastor, having gone through my own pain has allowed me to better be able to relate with others… as I am now living proof that “ the most painful parts of your past can be the healing chapters for someone elses present…”

In my darkest hour is where Gods word proved most true when He says that “He works all things together for my good because I love him and am called according to his purpose”.

We all experience pain, some much worse than others… but the constant in all of our experiences is a loving God who cares about that which concerns each one of us individually.

Maybe you’ve lost a loved one this week, maybe a relationship just crumbled, maybe your job was just eliminated and you’re just not sure what to do and maybe like me someone tried to kill you… God is still God, His Word is still true… and HE IS FAITHFUL to help you through!

Many people will allow their pain to be the soil for bitterness to grow… and I think that for the great majority of us, this would be the natural response… However, there is another option…I’d like to issue a challenge to us all today to intentionally think differently and submit our lives and our pain to a loving God, knowing He cares for us and will take our hardest tests and work with us to mend them to be our greatest testimonies of His faithfulness and power in our lives… proverbs 3 says, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight…

Pain can make us bitter or pain can make us better, but where the rubber meets the road, the choice is ours. If we will give our pain to God and submit to the process of being bettered in it, I believe many times, our most painful experiences can also be the catalyst for our greatest growth.

The Best Dad…

Today I was driving down the street with my four year old son Rocky when he piped up from the back seat, “Dad, one day can you buy me a nice telescope…”  as his father, and Being a star gazer myself, it’s my hearts desire to do nice things for him…so  I told him, “Sure”… Then he revealed the true intent behind his question as he replied excitedly, “Then maybe I could see Disneyland!”

Rocky kept asking me why I was laughing but I couldn’t answer, the entire thought process was just so funny to me…

This experience got me thinking about God from the perspective of a father.  The bible says, if we know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more must he know how…as our father.  I could not possibly love anything more in this life than I love my little boy…and yet as much as I love my son, God loves us more…

I think very often we as human beings view God as a “distant father” existing somewhere beyond the stars.  But scripture after scripture confirms that God is as close as the air that we breathe, He has numbered the hairs on our head, He is concerned with that which concerns us and that he wants for us to cast our cares upon him… God is not a distant father but he is that friend that sticks closer than a brother and his word says that nothing can separate us from His love.

Just like I do for Rocky, As our father, I believe God laughs when we laugh, He Cheers when we win and He weeps when we hurt.  He knows us and cares for us so intimately…  So, Today I would like to encourage you to approach God, not as a distant far away God, but as your father who loves you more than you can ever imagine… He hears your prayers wants good things for you… He’s a good Dad… Actually, He’s The best…

When Life Spirals Out of Control…

Have you ever had your life rearranged so bad that you felt like you could never get back on track and be who you felt like God Called you to be…?

This happened with me a few years ago. Before two men attempted to kill me I was on top of the world! I was a S.W.A.T officer and A Detective Sergeant, I was awarded top honors as officer of the year… I was living the dream! And in an experience that only lasted a few minutes, all of that came crashing down.

The guy who my peers used to describe as “the guy they wanted in their corner when things went down” was crippled to a mere shadow of who he used to be… My confidence was gone, my strength was gone, and then after a year of physical therapy, the doctors informed me that my injuries were permanent and I would have to medically retire because they would not release me to ever return to law enforcement.

Beyond the devastation of not being able to return to the career that I loved and worked so hard to advance in, I lived in a right to work state which meant once I lost my job, I lost my income and my benefits with virtually no restitution because we have no union or pension.

It felt like I was in a whirlwind season where things were domino-ing from bad to worse at an alarming rate!

Have you ever felt like that…? What I have come to realize after going through this situation and now coming out on the other side of it is… If you are like me, I think many of us look at life from a single path perspective. In our minds it’s almost like, if we don’t stay on that one path or if anything comes along and derails us from that path, then we will never be who God initially intended us to be. And that’s simply not true

I think God is much more like a GPS system… He may tell us, turn right at the nest intersection, but if we do not turn right, it does not mean all hope is lost as many would assume… on the contrary, God simply goes into “Re-navigating” mode and maps out the quickest path from where we now are to where He intends for us to be… The re-navigation may cost us a little more time than what would have been initially required had we simply stayed on course… but in the end, God is faithful to finish the work that He has begun in us if we simply follow the directions from the point where we are now…God never throws in the towel on us… Don’t throw in the towel on Him… Hearing Him say “Well done” is still your destiny…

How To Walk In FREEDOM!!!

Aaron Davis addresses what it really means to “Walk in the Spirit” and subsequently, FREEDOM!!!

The World Needs Your Gift

I wasn’t going to post this and rather just save it for the book but I really felt like I was supposed to share it for some reason… So, here is the rough draft final chapter from my next book -What to do after doing time…

Chapter 25- The World Needs Your Gift

The two most important days in a man’s life are the day he was born and the day he figures out why he was born! – Pastor Chris Hodges (Church of the Highlands)

Throughout this book I have continually reflected back on a common theme of healing, restoration and fulfillment of purpose encompassing who you are and the destiny that God has placed in you, with the absolute intent of ending the book with this chapter!  It has all been written and structured specifically so that at this point you would have a definitive understanding about who you are and why you are here in belief that you can walk fulfilled, knowing that God placed you here on purpose and FOR PURPOSE even if you don’t know exactly what that purpose is…Yet…!

I heard a pastor say something while preaching at my church here in Nashville that I have reflected upon many times since, as it pertained to this subject of who we are and why we are here, The two most important days in a man’s life are the day he was born and the day he figures out WHY he was born!

Each chapter in this book was written to compliment the previous chapters starting with the most foundational aspects of what Christ accomplished in our salvation and authority in this earth through his death, burial and resurrection.  Then, we elaborated upon who we are to God and how He feels about us.  And finally, who God created us to be IN Christ… all of which are absolutely necessary to understand aspects of our identity if we are going to walk in the destiny that God created us to walk in!

As a result, deliberately you have seen scriptures emphasizing the depth of Gods love for you, the authority He has given you and His purposeful intentionality in putting you here, on this earth, at this time to accomplish what He created for you to accomplish and live out in your lifetime!  Because, where the rubber meets the road, the world needs your gift!

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹¹For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.

    ¹²Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you.

    ¹³Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

 

 

Each of you have been given a specific combination of gifts and talents!  No one has exactly the same gift set or calling!  Some of you have an amazing ability to pick up a pencil and sketch out an elaborate picture that you simply dreamed up with your imagination.  Where, I on the other hand have difficulty sketching a stick man with straight legs!  Others of you are gifted with the ability to express yourself through beautiful music on an instrument or vocally, when I would be fortunate to figure out a basic chord progression or stay on key while singing!  Some of you have the ability to speak in front of crowds, dance, understand intricate numbers, care for the elderly, write computer code, remember history and dates, make people laugh, perform surgery, raise children, cultivate relationships, care for the environment, make executive decisions, protect people…etc.  And all of those are God given and God ordained giftings that are unique to you!

The point is, there are over 6 billion different gifting and talent combinations in operation in this world because, like a fingerprint, no two people are exactly the same and no two people have the exact same God ordained election in life.  Even though it is a given that your spheres of influence may overlap with other peoples at times, you have a specific imprint ability that no one else in this world has! God placed you here on purpose for such a time as this!

Esther 4:14

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁴ For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

I love that scripture!  Here Esther was presented with a challenge!  She is confronted with the opportunity to speak up and step into her calling so that God could use her to save her people!  But I love the way it is presented to her, …If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place but you and your family will perish… Esther’s destiny and legacy rested upon her willingness to take her God ordained place in history and use that influence to bring about the change that God wanted for His people!  Esther had a choice to either step forward in faith or cower in fear but if she chose the latter, God would have to use someone else to do what He had called her to do!  And that choice would affect more than just her…

Each of us has been placed in positions to both lead and follow.  There will always be things that we can learn from one another and things that we can teach each other!  There are perspectives that you have been specifically wired to understand and you have been commissioned to share your gift with others and fulfill the purpose that God placed you here for!

Jeremiah 1:4-9

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to me [Jeremiah], saying,

    ⁵Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

    ⁶Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am only a youth.

    ⁷But the Lord said to me, Say not, I am only a youth; for you shall go to all to whom I shall send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

    ⁸Be not afraid of them [their faces], for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.

    ⁹Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.

The worst thing you can do is attempt to compare yourself and your gift with someone else!  In the scripture above, the prophet Jeremiah was arguing with God about his prophetic calling!  Here, the man who was called to be one of the leading voices to Gods people in his day told God that he felt like a child and didn’t expect that people would even listen to him.

How many times have we ourselves done or said the same thing in times where we have felt inadequate?  How many times have you told God that you just weren’t able to do what He asked you to do?  How many times have you explained your position of insecurity to the God who created with a thought, the entire universe and (according to Wikipedia) its 80 billion galaxies and estimated 30 sextillion to possibly a septillion stars, each with their own system of planets and moons?  How many times have you expressed to THAT God that you just didn’t feel like He knew what He was doing when He created you and called you to your purpose…?

He who began a good work is faithful- not you

Here’s the deal, THAT almighty God who created the universe knew exactly what He was doing when He put you here!  He has a plan for your life that is so precisely designed and only you can fulfill it to its fullest potential!  This is why it is so important that we come to a place where we understand our authority and who we are in Christ Jesus because I believe that peoples lives and fulfillment hang in the balance!

God is faithful to complete the work that He has begun in everyone, and if you decide to not be who He called you to be, then I am certain that He can find someone else to pick up the slack, but like Esther, that person would not His first choice to accomplish that destiny…YOU ARE!

The body functioning in fullness

I’ve heard so many people attempt to trivialize who God has called them to be with words of inadequacy and feelings of inferiority but there is an important aspect of our connection in this life to consider.  God compares all of His children to the human body when He calls us the Body of Christ.  We are not all alike but on the contrary are each called to a specific purpose and function in that body!  So, let’s address about the parallel between human body and the body of Christ for a minute.

For those of you who have studied anatomy you realize that the more you know about the body and each parts function the more involved and intricate it becomes.  Most of us think of a human body in 6 visible sectors.  The head, arms, hands, torso, legs, and feet.  But as we begin to break those parts down, let’s just think about the head for a minute, visibly consisting of two ears, two eyes, a nose, a mouth, and hair.  But if we broke down any single one of those parts, there is a system of smaller parts that make those parts functional.  The human eye consists of over 30 definable major parts like the optic nerve, retina, and pupil…and each one of those parts can be broken down into more specific definable minor parts like rods and cones and nerves, probably to the nth degree.

The point of this example is, the human body wouldn’t be complete with out a head, but the head wouldn’t be complete without the eye and the eye wouldn’t be complete without the retina…etc, etc, etc…

Our God is a God of specific design!  And the part that you play in His design for the body of Christ today is absolutely essential in order for there to be complete functionality!

When I think of the body of Christ I very often think of two things.  One is body parts attempting to function separated from the body and the other is body parts not functioning at all!

What happens when a body part attempts to function a part from the body?

No matter how great or small the part, if I disconnected it from my body, it would not receive signal from my brain, it would not receive necessary blood and oxygen to give it life from the rest of my body and it would quickly rot and die!  Each part is specifically designed to operate in cooperation with the rest of the body!  It cannot function apart from the connection that it was designed to function in and if it tries…Death is the result…

I believe that this is a significant issue in the body of Christ today!  There are so many parts that have attempted to disconnect themselves from the rest of the body because of strong feelings about their own philosophies and doctrines that, when exposed, are in opposition to the true heart of God.   This lack of connection and unity has caused there to be a rotting stench of dead disconnected parts in our world, I believe both in the nostrils of people who are not Christians and even to God Himself!

There is nothing wrong with having our own opinions and perspectives on debatable issues of doctrine.  But, we cannot allow our opinions on these non-essential issues to be so strong and so absolute that it causes there to be a separation from the rest of the Body of Christ.  When we allow this to happen, pieces that God designed to function in unity attempt to function apart from their intended connection and just like a finger separated from the hand, death is the result!

Romans 14:1-12

Amplified Bible (AMP)

 

 ¹AS FOR the man who is a weak believer, welcome him [into your fellowship], but not to criticize his opinions or pass judgment on his scruples or perplex him with discussions.

    ²One [man's faith permits him to] believe he may eat anything, while a weaker one [limits his] eating to vegetables.

    ³Let not him who eats look down on or despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains criticize and pass judgment on him who eats; for God has accepted and welcomed him.

    ⁴Who are you to pass judgment on and censure another’s household servant? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he shall stand and be upheld, for the Master (the Lord) is mighty to support him and make him stand.

    ⁵One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike [sacred]. Let everyone be fully convinced (satisfied) in his own mind.

    ⁶He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. He also who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while he who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

    ⁷None of us lives to himself [but to the Lord], and none of us dies to himself [but to the Lord, for]

    ⁸If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or we die, we belong to the Lord.

    ⁹For Christ died and lived again for this very purpose, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

    ¹⁰Why do you criticize and pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you look down upon or despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.

    ¹¹For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God [acknowledge Him to His honor and to His praise].

    ¹²And so each of us shall give an account of himself [give an answer in reference to judgment] to God.

Verse 3 above says, Let not…  I believe that it is our responsibility to guard our unity with other believers.  So many of us take the divorce approach when disagreement happens.  As if we exist in all or nothing relationships with other people and demand that they think and do exactly as we do in order for them to be accepted by us… it is this line of thinking that has not only separated the body of Christ from each other, but also from those who God would have come in to a relationship with Him.

Proverbs 4:23

Amplified Bible (AMP)

²³Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.

Because of such a staunch, unyielding stand on issues of opinion, many in the church have completely excommunicated themselves from any influence outside of those under their roof… and sadly, many who take that absolute position even destroy their family relationships because of a lack of balance in the love department ruining the little influence that they may have had…

We don’t have to be clones or all subscribe to the exact way of thinking or responding as everyone else, but a common connection to the rest of the body is absolutely essential!  God is big enough that He can have each part functioning in an individual role where the foot doesn’t have to be just like the hand or do exactly what the mouth is doing, but essentially, there must be a unified purpose and connection to what is central in the entire body!

I believe that which should connect us all is Jesus Christ and if there was a single, life giving source (or blood) that all of the body should be expected to operate in, in order to function properly and stay alive in that unity, I believe that blood would be LOVE.

As we have stated before in this book, God defines Himself in His Word by the single word, Love.  If we are connected to His body and His blood is flowing through our parts, then Love should be a significant aspect of what identifies us as a part of His body both to those who are and are not yet connected.

Matthew 7:16

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁶You will fully recognize them by their fruits…

 

Galatians 5:22

New King James Version (NKJV)

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness

I’m convinced that the more time we spend communicating with God and in His presence, we will see His fruits manifested in our lives!  I’m also convinced that a primary reason that many do not display the fruits of Gods Spirit and subsequently are not easily identifiable as being connected to Him is because of an absolute rebellion against His desires and His thoughts for us because of our own agendas and opinions which we have ultimately and rebelliously exalted above His.  When this happens, we are simply choosing to not function as a connected part of the Body of Christ.

What happens when body parts don’t function at all?

When body parts don’t function at all in the body of Christ, it is only because they have chosen not to or do not realize how to!  There is a term for bodies that are attempting to work without the function of an essential part: Crippled…

I believe that the Body of Christ has been called to such greatness and authority in this world but it has been, overall, functioning in a crippled capacity because people are simply choosing to not be the essential piece that God has called them to be!

Like the human body, the Body of Christ has the ability to compensate for the lack or crippling in an area where someone has chosen to not function in the fullness of their purpose, but this is simply not what God intended!  He intended for us to function in wholeness!

He is still faithful, but when people choose to not walk in His love and toward the destiny that He created them to walk in, God has to remove deadness and, redirect what would have been our calling to someone else instead of using the one He initially purposed … YOU!

John 15:1-15

Amplified Bible (AMP)

 ¹I AM the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.

    ²Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.

    ³You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word which I have given you [the teachings I have discussed with you].

    ⁴Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.

    ⁵I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

    ⁶If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.

    ⁷If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

    ⁸When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine.

    ⁹I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [^[a]continue in His love with Me].

    ¹⁰If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love.

    ¹¹I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.

    ¹²This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you.

    ¹³No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.

    ¹⁴You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do.

    ¹⁵I do not call you servants (slaves) any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing (working out). But I have called you My friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father. [I have revealed to you everything that I have learned from Him.]

The Word says that pieces that are not connected to the vine or producing fruit will be cut off.  I do believe that God has the absolute ability to grow new parts in the place where the old was removed, but that is apart from the primary point, I’m convinced that there are so many who are functioning beneath where God has positioned them or called them to function and overall, the Body of Christ is functioning far beneath it’s intended place of authority in this earth!

It’s as if a virus has attacked so many of our body parts that the other parts are compensating and overworking in an overtaxing attempt to keep the body alive while so much of the Body is just sick and feeble!

It shouldn’t be this way, but anyone who knows what the Word of God says about our authority and who God has positioned us to be in this earth, would be in absolute denial if they said anything otherwise!  The numbers don’t lie, and the Body of Christ is dwindling in impact world-wide as Christianity has been on the demise!

Our influence in the past 50 years has taken a significant downturn!  I heard a statistic recently that stated, all of Europe is now only 1% Christian and the Unites States is one generation from embodying the same statistic.  The Word of God declares that we will be known by our fruit, and for the most part, the fruit we are producing as a whole has continued to become more and more scarce.  This simply does not have to be!

I believe that a significant reason for this decrease in fruit yield is that increasing numbers of Christians are not staying connected to the Body and as a result, not making the impact in this world that they were created to have!  What this does, is leave a select few people carrying a significant load and in essence, having to compensate for others who are refusing to walk in their authority, exercising their influence and fulfilling their calling!

Because God is faithful, He does remove dead branches which allows the ones that are connected to produce bigger fruit, but, I’m convinced that God’s perfect plan doesn’t involve the removing process at all nor does He desire to shift influence from one person to another, but rather to have each person be the part of the body that He created them to be so that they can walk in the influence that they were specifically created to have!

According to His Word, God intended MORE from His body than what is being produced at this point in history, and I believe that a significant reason that we are not seeing more is because people are simply not embracing who they were created to be, living an entire life beneath their calling and dying unnecessarily unfulfilled!

Being the You that God created

Matthew 25:14-30

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁴For it is like a man who was about to take a long journey, and he called his servants together and entrusted them with his property.

    ¹⁵To one he gave five talents [probably about $5,000], to another two, to another one–to each in proportion to his own ^[a]personal ability. Then he departed and left the country.

    ¹⁶He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he gained five talents more.

    ¹⁷And likewise he who had received the two talents–he also gained two talents more.

    ¹⁸But he who had received the one talent went and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

    ¹⁹Now after a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.

    ²⁰And he who had received the five talents came and brought him five more, saying, Master, you entrusted to me five talents; see, here I have gained five talents more.

    ²¹His master said to him, Well done, you upright (honorable, ^[b]admirable) and faithful servant! You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much. Enter into and share the joy (the delight, the ^[c]blessedness) which your master enjoys.

    ²²And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, Master, you entrusted two talents to me; here I have gained two talents more.

    ²³His master said to him, Well done, you upright (honorable, ^[d]admirable) and faithful servant! You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much. Enter into and share the joy (the delight, the ^[e]blessedness) which your master enjoys.

    ²⁴He who had received one talent also came forward, saying, Master, I knew you to be a harsh and hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you had not winnowed [the grain].

    ²⁵So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is your own.

    ²⁶But his master answered him, You wicked and lazy and idle servant! Did you indeed know that I reap where I have not sowed and gather [grain] where I have not winnowed?

    ²⁷Then you should have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received what was my own with interest.

    ²⁸So take the talent away from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.

    ²⁹For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will be ^[f]furnished richly so that he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have will be taken away.

    ³⁰And throw the good-for-nothing servant into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.

I have heard many teachings about talents from this passage of scripture and for the purposes of what I am addressing I simply want to focus on what I believe Jesus was attempting to positively convey.  First of all, in this parable, Jesus was simply using money to make a measurable point.  I believe that the talent could have been anything that God has entrusted to us.  Influence, children, position, money, giftings…etc.  Regardless of the size of the talent, God expected that those who He gave the talent to, did not waste it!

Understanding the depth of who you are to God is beyond your minds ability to fully comprehend.  Most of us when looking at the totality of the circumstances would say to God, “Why me…?”  when understanding the why is simply not a part of any prerequisite in fulfilling your calling.   They why is irrelevant when the fact of the matter is, It is what it is…  You are who God says you are and you are gifted with the talents and abilities that you have because He made you that way.

I’ve seen so many compare themselves to others who had, what they perceived to be a similar calling or were doing something that they themselves wished that they were doing.  Like a watermelon comparing itself to an apple hanging on a tree, to compare yourself and your calling with another’s would be useless and fruitless.  You are who God has made you to be.  In your DNA is every ability to be exactly who your world needs!  So, your approach in life needs to be one of seeking God’s direction and His approval and then trusting Him to bring you to the place that you are called to be.  God’s timing will be perfect and you will step into your place of fulfillment exactly when you need to do so!

Some people are purposed to do what they do and step into their life long destiny at 20 while others (like Jesus) train for 30 years and then have a 3 year ministry that changes the world!  The point being, whether you are 20 or 75, if you still have breath in your lungs, God is not done with you yet!  You may have been patiently waiting for 20 years and next week be launched into your destiny!

I’ve heard several world impacting ministers say, People ask me how I became such an overnight success…what they didn’t realize is that I spent 20 years sowing seed and becoming who I was so that I could handle what I needed to be able to handled in this season and seemingly overnight exalted to a place of greater influence…but this was a 20 year quest of blood, sweat and tears…not an overnight success…   

Don’t be discouraged if you feel like you are not today who you dreamed of being yesterday.  God will complete that good work that He began in you, just continue to move forward in Him.

Many years ago I was arguing with God and feeling very discouraged with where I was seemingly at in my life.  I told God, I have so many dreams inside of me…  and that was as far as I got in my pity party before God interrupted me and said so clearly, I know Aaron, I put them there. 

 

What I have come to understand as the truth of the matter, at least in my life, is that God plants in us our dreams to give us something to look forward to during the times that we are not quite there yet…  Since that time I have had many up and down moments in my life!  Many seasons I have questioned what was going on and why… only to receive answers from God like, You had a lot to unlearn, or This is necessary for the next season… Things haven’t always worked out in MY timing but I can say without fail, when I remained postured for God to use me and bless me, He was always faithful!

As we read earlier in this chapter in Matthew 25, God prunes those that He loves…Meaning, sometimes there are things growing on our branches that will draw life and resource away from God’s intended fruit and God will take the time to prune those things so that ultimately, we can be the most fulfilled in Him and produce the most intentional and fulfilling fruit in our lives!

Sometimes the vision that God has given us for the fruit we are to produce is greater than what our branches are equipped to carry at the time.  God knows this, and allows us to produce the needed fruit for that season until we are strong enough to carry the weight of the bigger fruit we envisioned…

Zechariah 4:10

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁰ Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…

So many times, your timeframes are not God’s timeframes and when you are moving forward, following His leading, there will be seasons when you will ask yourself, what in the world is God doing…?  Those are often the seasons when you have huge dreams and are producing seemingly small fruit and wondering if you are even called to be the one that you dreamed you were to be…

Don’t despise those seasons when things are seemingly small, those are often the seasons where pruning is taking place and God is redirecting resource into your necessary branches so that the larger fruit can be produced later!  Just remain faithful in that season and know that God is setting you up for success as long as you stay postured to receive it!

Luke 16:10

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁰He who is faithful in a very little [thing] is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little [thing] is dishonest and unjust also in much.

When you are following Gods leading for your life, He is not going to put you out there to fail!  He will allow you to build a strong foundation, and learn the necessary prerequisites in this season in order to be a success in the next!  He loves you and has called you to absolute GREATNESS!  He wants you to be fulfilled in whatever your calling in this life is and desires for you to seek Him today for guidance so that you can be set up for additional success tomorrow!

Whether you are a business executive, a pastor, a stay at home parent, a teacher, a landscaper, a stylist, an author, a programmer, an athlete, or maybe you don’t even know who you are to be…God has a plan for your life and He, with your cooperation will make you into the most fulfilling YOU that you could ever dream of being!  The only prerequisite is that you look to God, seek His guidance and submit to His direction for your life so that everything you dreamed of fulfilling can be your reality!

Matthew 6:33

Amplified Bible (AMP)

³³But seek (^[a]aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (^[b]His way of doing and being right), and then all these things ^[c]taken together will be given you besides.

What to do after doing time…

 

Luke 4:18-19

Amplified Bible (AMP) (personal emphasis and bold face by author)

¹⁸The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity],

    ¹⁹To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord [the day ^[a]when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound.

 

Whether in an actual jail cell, bound by the shackles of a stronghold in our lives or imprisoned by negative thought processes that have tormented our minds…we have ALL done time in some capacity, but the content presented in this book has given you the foundation and ammunition to take back those areas of your life where the devil has attempt to derail your destiny!  Jesus came to RELEASE THE CAPTIVES!  Those things no longer have the authority to continue to bind you!  Christ has restored YOUR authority over the works of the devil!

Luke 10:19

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁹Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.

You are who God says you are!  You are no longer defined by the failures of your yesterday, on the contrary you are defined by the tomorrow that God has for you!  He has a dream for your life that only you can complete in the fullness that He intends for it to be accomplished!  You are purposed by God to win and lead others into their own victory and to stomp the devils head in the process!

Even though, right now you may not know what that looks like or perhaps even how to get there, God does…It’s time for you to embrace your destiny… Walk where He created for you to walk!  Conquer where He created for you to conquer! Be who you were created to be…Complete IN HIM!

You carry the God of the Universe in your very being and He has entrusted you with the unique ability to be who only YOU can be… Do not underestimate what God has placed in you!  You are His child, you are here by divine design…and…

…The World Needs Your Gift!

Overcoming the Pain of Yesterday…

Chapter 24- Overcoming the Pain of Yesterday

(Rough draft chapter from my next book)

Joel 2:25

Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁵And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten–the hopping locust, the stripping locust, and the crawling locust, My great army which I sent among you.

 

I have purposely waited until this point in the book to address this subject because, for me, coming to this understanding was the turning point in my life that liberated me and set me back on course both in ministry, focus and destiny.

Much of what I have addressed in throughout the previous chapters, I had a pretty decent grasp upon going into the time when I learned this lesson, but when I was confronted with this realization, my entire life and paradigm of who I was shifted!

Like many who have spent any length of time in church, I was very wounded.  In hindsight I realize that people are people and everyone, including myself, has made mistakes and done things that would hurt others in some capacity.  Sometimes the wounds are superficial and sometimes the wounds go very deep.  But there is a common thread of pain throughout humanity and relationships…We’ve all experienced it and for many of us, the most difficult hurts have been at the hands of people who we cared about…

The circumstances that I encountered leading to my own disillusionment was actually multi-faceted and in a season where I became very frustrated with Christians.  I knew what the Word of God said, but I was immersed in an environment, living in the belt buckle of the bible belt where, almost everyone that I encountered claimed to be a Christian but it seemed that nearly everywhere I looked I was seeing blatant inconsistency between what people said they believed and their actions.

To be fair, not everyone that I encountered was exampling this inconsistency, but in the place where I was at emotionally and spiritually, the devil made sure to place those who would add to my frustration, right directly in my path and then whisper things like “see, there’s another one” so that my mind became consumed with cynicism and distain for Christians who, in my assessment were failing miserably in their walk with God and love for people.

In this season, some leaders in my life fell or showed me a side of themselves that I did not expect or want to see and I began to slide backward into a very negative mentality about Christianity or those who I DEEMED lacking a real relationship with God because they were legalistic and religious by my standards.  I was let down and hurt and it was very easy to see things from a jaded perspective.

In this season, after 9 years of serving as a youth pastor or an associate pastor, I was seriously contemplating forfeiting my ministry credentials and pursuing another career full time.  I was just in a place where I didn’t want to even be associated with Christians or Christianity and couldn’t seem to shake the pain associated with my experience which I realize now was rooted in a bitterness that was further feeding the flame of frustration.  It was a terribly unhealthy place to be as a pastor and I felt like a poser even allowing people to call me Pastor Aaron because I knew, in that season, I did not have a pastors heart.

Those who knew me best were concerned for me because this cynicism was also bleeding into every other area of my life.  On several occasions, my wife expressed deep concern to me for what she saw happening but felt powerless to address.  My parents were concerned as well.  I remember many conversations with my father on the phone when he would attempt to encourage me, but because I was in a dark place in my mind, I was not completely able to receive what he or anyone else had to say.

Emotional pain and offenses have a way of influencing so much about who we are and how we respond, particularly when we hold on to them and refuse to release them.  Without getting into details that would hurt other men’s reputations, but to make clear where I am coming from, I was holding on to feelings of bitterness as a direct result of feeling intentionally used, lied to, manipulated and taken advantage of.  All of which were factual without argument, but I believe my response to how I was treated was causing more damage than the actual events had and it was holding back my destiny and even causing me to question whether or not I even wanted to pursue it anymore!

I’m not proud to say, I lived in this place for a considerable time, a few years to be exact, and the longer I lived there, the worse I felt about the issues that were plaguing my mind.  I wanted to hear from God but the voices that I was entertaining actually kept me from clearly hearing what I believe He was trying to speak to me during that season.  I felt like I was alone, but what I didn’t realize is that my response to the pain that I had experienced positioned me in a place where I could not receive my breakthrough.  It was a catch 22.  I needed to hear, but I couldn’t hear because of the choices I was making which in turn caused me more frustration at the lack of direction!  I was just in a bad place!

God is Faithful

You know, God’s faithfulness is crazy to me!  Even when I was standing in the way of my own progress, God was planning to provide another means to reach me where I was at.  I wasn’t in a place to hear from Him directly because I wasn’t listening, I wasn’t hearing what people who loved me and had my best interest at heart had to say because I felt like I knew better than them and I sure wasn’t going to go to someone I didn’t know for advice…so I was left wanting answers that no one could give me…or at least none that I was able to hear…Then God intervened…

Divine Intervention

My parents came to visit from Detroit and my dad asked me if I would take him to the church of some preacher he had seen on TV.  I’ve got to tell you, I was not too thrilled with the idea of going to any church, but especially not some TV preachers church, in the heart of the bible belt.  My cynicism in this season had grown to an all time high and the lack of trust I felt for Christians in general, let alone some guy who was on TV was pretty much off the charts.  But, because it was my parent’s vacation, I complied with their request and took them to this Oasis Church in Nashville.

As is Gods M/O He started working on me before the first note of the first song and I found myself liking the vibe of the church and the people who were coming up to me and saying hi.  The church was very ethnically diverse, which I LOVED and was also very uncommon in this part of the country.  So, I found myself actually kind of intrigued as to why this place was different than others I had experienced.

The worship team did a really good job and then up pops this guy that dad had seen on TV, Pastor Danny Chambers.  My first impression of him was, he seemed like a nice enough guy who was relatively down to earth, so I was willing to listen and see what he had to say… and then he went into the message that shattered my world-How Long Will You Mourn Yesterday…?

How Long Will You Mourn Yesterday

I grew up in church, I went to a TV preachers bible college, at one time, my aspirations were actually to be that guy on TV so I pretty much had the impress me mentality about pastors because, from my arrogant perspective, there wasn’t much that I hadn’t heard or didn’t know about the bible.  As I listened to this pastor, he started sharing this story about the Prophet Samuel.

1 Samuel 16:1

Amplified Bible (AMP)

1 Samuel 16

 ¹THE LORD said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided for Myself a king among his sons.

Samuel was in a very uncomfortable predicament for a prophet.  You see, in his day and time, a prophet of God was held to a very high standard.   If they prophesied in the name of the Lord and were wrong they would be branded a false prophet and put to death.  So, when Israel wanted a king, God showed Samuel that a man named Saul was to be anointed as their leader and the king He had chosen.

1 Samuel 9:17

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁷When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, There is the man of whom I told you. He shall have authority over My people.

For a time, Saul led the Israelites faithfully and brought them victories over their enemies.   But Saul had an internal issue with insecurity and in a time when he should have listened to the direction of God, he succumbed to the feelings that he was losing the peoples faith in him and Saul disobeys a direct instruction from God and finds himself being rebuked by the same prophet who anointed him as king.

1 Samuel 13:13-14

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹³And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly! You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God which He commanded you; for the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever;

    ¹⁴But now your kingdom shall not continue; the Lord has sought out [David] a man after His own ^[a]heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince and ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

This grieved Samuel and actually placed him in grave danger.  Even though he had anointed Saul, as king, Saul could have had Samuel put to death for coming against him.  In addition to this, the people could have deduced that Samuel was a false prophet because he now appeared to be talking out both sides of his mouth and contradicting himself in saying that God chose Saul and then a few short years later now rejected him.

I’m sure that there was a bond that Samuel had with Saul.  He likely loved Saul and maintained a close friendship with him.  There were likely meals together, time spent in laughter and friendship with his family, times that Samuel spoke into Saul’s life and encouraged him to be the man that God created him to be and that Samuel believed he could be…and then the rug was ripped out!

Samuel’s first allegiance was to God and as a prophet I’m sure there were times, in this season that he questioned a lot of things just like you and I would in similar circumstances… Did I miss it somehow in hearing God…?  Did I fail Saul as his spiritual advisor…?  Did I fail my country…?  How am I going to move forward in this calling on my life after such a catastrophic failure and set back?

But in His faithfulness, God confronts Samuel’s wrong thinking by asking him, How long will you mourn yesterday?  God’s call upon Samuel did not change because his circumstances changed.  God’s positioning of him as a prophet did not change because of a temporary set back.  Going through a season that wounded him emotionally did not close the door to his future.  Saul, because of his own choices became a part of Samuels past but God did not define Samuel by the past.  Even though Saul was no longer the leader in Gods eyes, God was already planning to set up Samuel for his next fulfillment as a prophet by anointing David as king, who incidentally ended up being the greatest king in Israeli history!

Samuels’ destiny was not defined by a seasonal failure!  When things fell apart, God was already posturing Samuel for his next success!  I’m sure Samuel wondered if his legacy would be, the prophet who anointed the king who failed… But in true God fashion, He shakes Samuel from his personal pity party and puts him back in the game after, what appeared to be a career ending loss…  With God, a setback is nothing more than an opportunity where He can make what seems impossible a reality!

Once David assumed the throne, the failure of Saul and his connection to Samuel was a distant memory!  The memory of Samuel, through the faithfulness of God, became the prophet who anointed the greatest king of Israel!

Now, ask yourself, what would have happened if Samuel would have continued to mourn Saul after God told him to get back in the game!  What if he would have just continued to wallow in the memory of his loss and what he perceived to be failure beyond restoration?  What if Samuel had chosen to tell God, I’m through, I’m not going to anoint another king and be associated with another failure… ?  If he had taken that position, his every fear would have been confirmed and his legacy would have been defined by a failure that was never overcome!  Samuel did still have a choice to either follow God in what he knew was his calling in life or to throw in the towel and be the prophet who used to be God’s voice to his nation!

 

Get Back In The Game

I had read this story many times in my life but never heard it from this perspective.  I never placed myself in Samuel’s shoes or saw the parallel for my own life until that moment!  I realized that I was at a Y in the road and the choice I made would affect my destiny!  I felt like I was in the place where Samuel was when God asked him, How long will you mourn yesterday.  To me, it felt like God was saying to me, Aaron, it’s time to get up and let go of all of this stuff that is keeping you from what you were created to be!

I had lost my vision for tomorrow because of the pain and letdowns of yesterday.  Like Samuel with Saul, I was frustrated with relationships that I believed my future was tied to and I felt like, because of their failure and broken promises I was left hanging.  But, I realized that I had placed a faith in man that I should have only had in God!  I realized in that moment as I was listening to the preacher that I didn’t even care to see, that God, in His faithfulness, brought me to that place for that exact message and that it was He who had placed this call upon my life to do what He created for me to do and it is up to me to continue to walk in that because it is He who is faithful to complete what He began in me!

At one point in my life, I was so full of faith and I believed that God had purposed me for greatness and although I had lost sight of that by allowing people to sway my focus, I was seeing clearly the deceit of the enemy who was trying to steal from me the legacy that God created for me.  I reflected back on my earlier years in my ministry, when I would make statements like, I will follow God if everyone in the world turns away…and yet, I was in a season where people’s actions caused me to doubt that I even had a purpose anymore!  I had taken my eyes off of God and in this moment in a single church service, God was telling me, Get up, it’s time for you to get back in the game!  …and I did…

After the Rain

Matthew 5:45 says that the rain falls on the just and the unjust.  Occasionally I will jokingly say, with a king james slant, Manure Occureth. We all experience our Samuel moments of pain, frustration and setbacks.  It is an inevitable part of life.  I’m not minimizing or trivializing these moments by flippantly saying, Manure Occureth, I’m only saying that it’s par for the course.  I realize that for some, the pain one experienced may be much less than another’s and sometimes someone else’s setbacks seem much more temporary than our own.  I don’t have an answer for why that is in your life but, it is what it is.  We are the sum total of our life experiences and who God has called us to be!  We can allow our negative encounters to define us or we can allow God to mend them and use what we have learned from them to define our future.

The hurt that Samuel felt concerning Saul probably followed him all of his life.  Not from a wallowing in it perspective but from a love for a friend perspective.  The relationship between a king and a prophet was a special one and when everything happened and Saul was eventually killed, I’m sure it grieved Samuel’s heart.  But Samuel still had a destiny of his own to fulfill and he couldn’t allow himself to be held back because of a series of circumstances that restructured his life temporarily.

The rain will fall, that fact is inevitable.  But, what the rain produces in your life depends on the seed that is in you and whether or not you are cultivating it.  Each of us has a seed of destiny in our lives!  God has a plan for us that will put behind us our greatest disappointments if we will cultivate it and allow God to continue to work in our lives. We have the ability to keep our destiny seeds maturing by how we respond in seasons when God is attempting to better us in spite of our circumstances.

Romans 8:28

Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁸We are assured and know that [^[a]God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.

This scripture doesn’t say that all things ARE good, it says that God is faithful to work them together FOR our good.  I am convinced that the devil throws things at us to destroy us!  Many times the rain that we are experiencing in our lives was meant for our destruction, but God takes it and works it around for our good.

I can say that there have been a lot of things in my life that I wish I could have learned a different way or avoided all together, but it is what it is… My experiences, good and bad, are a part of my story and something that God has used to help others.

If I hadn’t experienced the things that I have in my life, my ability to relate with you and speak from a place of authority on these subjects my have been compromised.  In essence, God took that rain in my life and used it to water the seed of my destiny when the devil was hoping to drown it!

God required something of me a few years ago that I spent a lifetime trying to not walk in.  I don’t like feeling vulnerable or exposed but I clearly heard Him say one night that, for me and my influence with others, transparency was to be an essential part of what ministry looked like for me.  In essence, He was telling me that being transparent will help others see that they’re are not alone and that God is faithful despite pain and perceived failure and if I would allow myself to be transparent, God would use those painful times to be a catalyst not only for my success but other people’s as well!

The lessons that I learned in that season in my life and put on paper here in this chapter are not limited to my experience any more than they were limited to Samuels experience thousands of years ago… My story can be your story!

Ecclesiastes 1:9

New International Version (NIV)

⁹ What has been will be again, 
what has been done will be done again; 
there is nothing new under the sun.

What you have experienced others have also had to go through in their lives!  Some have experienced less, and others more…but you can have the ability to speak into their lives and help them reach their own destiny if you will allow God to use what has been set against you to destroy you and turn it around for good.

It doesn’t mean that there is not a scar from the events or even that there will not be pain associated with the memories…but as you allow God to use you to help and heal others, you will find that you also experience greater degrees of healing yourself.

If you are still breathing you still have purpose here on this earth!  No matter how difficult the path has been getting you here, you must realize that your legacy does not have to be defined by your past but can be defined by how God works it together for your future.  As painful as yesterday was, realize this, with God you can step into a destiny fulfilled tomorrow.

As the opening scripture in this chapter said, God will restore the years that were stolen and He will make all things new..

Revelation 21:5

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁵And He Who is seated on the throne said, See! I make all things new…

 

I don’t believe that Israel would have been the same if Samuel had not embraced his calling and stepped back into his destiny.  I’m not sure that my sphere of influence would have been reached as efficiently as it was, had I not submitted to doing it…and I’m not sure that your influence can be replaced in the way in the capacity that you were created to have it… Each of us have a unique calling and God wants to use us FIRST to complete that calling!

I’m sure God could have raised up another prophet but Samuel was His first choice.  Israel needed his gift back then, and today, the world needs YOURS…How long will you mourn yesterday…?

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

How to talk to God…?

Chapter 23-  When I Pray

(rough draft chapter from my next book)

Philippians 4:6

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁶Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.

Communication is such an essential aspect of any relationship!  When the lines of communication are healthy, most of the time, the relationship is healthy.  But when those likes break down, many times, the relationship suffers as well.  We were created to have relationship with God and with each other, in order for those relationships to continue to grow and mature, communication is essential.  And yet, when it comes to communicating with God, so many people feel a level of discomfort and have told me, I don’t know how to talk to God…

Be Yourself

The first thing that I would like to address as it pertains to communicating with God is just this, Be Yourself!  I’m aware of the fact that many people have been made to feel like they can’t be themselves around some Christians and then when you couple that experience with the experience of going to a church and hearing other people pray in a way that seems so much different than how they talk to you, it could easily leave someone with the impression that, when it comes to talking to God, there is an unnatural formula that is supposed to be complied with.  I’d just like to set the record straight in saying that, this perspective is just not accurate…

Even I, on occasion, have felt that pressure to perform when talking to God.  Several years ago I remember feeling convicted by the Holy Spirit when I was with a group of Pastors and was asked to pray in front of them.  In hind-sight it was comical, but I remember bowing my head, closing my eyes and praying this ridiculous, inauthentic prayer of pomp and circumstance in front of these men that I respected.  What was funny about the whole thing is, mid way through the prayer I felt like I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit say to me, Who in the world are you…?  As if He were saying, you look like my son, your voice sounds like my son but my son doesn’t talk like that…

It’s funny because, I talk to God like I talk to my dad.  I can’t tell you how many times I have said something to God like, That was so cool what you just did!  Or God you are so awesome, I’m blown away by your creation!  Or, God, that was some FUNNY STUFF right there, I know I’m your favorite just because you allowed me to see that!  So, for me to go from being so openly me to being putting on some kind of show to impress the people that I was around… Let’s just say, I could tell God was not impressed with my showmanship.

God made you the individual that you are!  He calls you His child and He loves you more that your finite mind will ever be able to comprehend.  God created you to have a relationship with Him and He wants you to communicate with Him!  He wants to hear your thoughts on issues, He cares about that which concerns you and He wants you to talk to Him about the things that you are needing in your life!

Matthew 11:28

Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁸Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ^[a]ease and relieve and ^[b]refresh ^[c]your souls.]

As was stated in the opening scripture in this chapter, God has literally said in His Word for us to make our petitions known to God through prayer!  Part of the covenant that was established with God through the death and resurrection of Christ was a restored relationship with God!  Because of what Jesus did, we can now go directly TO God with our requests instead of having to ask a priest to do it for us!  It is literally the desire of God for us to come directly to Him with our needs so that He can answer our prayers!  Not only do we just have a right to talk to God, but the God who created the universe in all of its splendor wants for you to communicate with Him!

Matthew 7:7-8

Amplified Bible (AMP)

^7[a]Keep on asking and it will be given you; ^[b] keep on seeking and you will find; ^[c]keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.

    ⁸For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.

 

We are not bothering God when we talk to him or come to Him in prayer.  God is bigger than our needs and He is big enough to handle all that we can bring to Him!  It’s not like He has a telephone with one line and if you call Him, you are going hold up the line where someone with a “bigger problem” can’t get through!  God is big enough to hear and answer your prayers along with EVERY other one of His children in the world!  You are God’s family and He wants to hear from you!

Matthew 7:9-11

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁹Or what man is there of you, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will hand him a stone?  ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will hand him a serpent? ¹¹If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and ^[a]advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and^[b]advantageous things to those who ^[c]keep on asking Him!

We are not bothering God when we communicate with Him or ask Him for something!  Because you are His child you have every right to come to Him and talk to Him about whatever is on your mind or concerning your heart.

I heard a song many years ago by a group named Scarecrown and Tinman called You are my Son.  I’ve often reflected back on this song because of the intimate fatherly nature of God that it conveys in the chorus:

I know your name and I weep when you hurt and I cheer when you win because you are my son.  I will come when you call, I will hear your prayers and I will fight for my name because you are my son…

I remember the first time I heard those lyrics just sitting there in tears as I saw God in a light that I had previously not seen Him before.  As a father myself I now understand in even more detail the depth of those words.  Interestingly enough, as I typed that last paragraph, my 3 year old son, Rocky walked over to the banister and yelled downstairs at me writing, Dad…I love you… As his father, when he hurts, I hurt, when he has fun, I have fun, when he sings and dances it makes me want to sing and dance.  My best friend is a 3 year old right now…I don’t know how that happens but it does and when I think about God from that perspective it changes my paradigm of Him.  I understand Him more because I understand love on a fatherly scale now more than ever before.

God, whose first and foremost nature is Love, loves us more than any father could possibly love His child.  He is meticulously aware of you and I believe that if you could audibly hear His voice, 24/7 He’d be telling you how much He loves you and wants you to walk in the wholeness and freedom that is available to you!  I believe He’d tell you how excited He was to see you step into your victories and how much His heart hurt when He saw you hurting…Because you are His child…

We are His child not His servant

 

Galatians 4:4-7

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁴But when the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to [the regulations of] the Law,

    ⁵To purchase the freedom of (to ransom, to redeem, to ^[a]atone for) those who were subject to the Law, that we might be adopted and have sonship conferred upon us [and be recognized as God's sons].

    ⁶And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the [^[b]Holy] Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba (Father)! Father!

    ⁷Therefore, you are no longer a slave (bond servant) but a son; and if a son, then [it follows that you are] an heir ^[c]by the aid of God, through Christ.

So many Christians go from being bound by sin to being bound by religion and they

never really embrace the freedom that Christ provided for them as sons of God!  Because they have operated under a slavery to sin concept for so long, many enter into Christianity with the same slavery mentalities.  But God isn’t wanting slaves, if He did He would not have created us with the ability to choose to love Him.  On the contrary, God calls us sons and desires to have a relationship with us that puts to shame the slave/master relationship!  He sees you as so much more than you may have perceived yourself to be!  You are His child and you have EVERY RIGHT to come to Him with your concerns, desires, requests, exciting stories, dreams and victories!  You can talk to Him just like you would someone who, beyond any doubt, loves you with all His heart and wants good things for your life!

Hebrews 4:16

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁶Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].

We have made communicating with God more complicated than it needs to be.  God is not a million miles away from us, His Spirit resides WITHIN us!  He’s as close to us as our breath!  We can simply talk to God and know we know that His Word says when we do, He hears us, because we are His children and we have a covenant relationship with Him!

Proverbs 15:29

Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁹The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the [consistently] righteous (the upright, in right standing with Him).

What’s great about this scripture above is that we ARE consistently righteous in God’s eyes because of our covenant with Him through Christ!  So, the favor of God that was previously obtained through strict adherence to rules and sacrificing of animals by a priest who approached God for us as a liaison is now ours through Christ!  We ARE made righteous and as a result, we can go directly to God with our needs and when we approach God, He hears our prayers!

When We Don’t Know What To Pray

I said earlier that God meticulously cares for us!  He knows us so well that even when we don’t know what to pray or how to pray, He comes to our aid by simply interpreting what is in our heart.

Romans 8:26

The Message (MSG)

 ^26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

I can’t tell you how many times in my life I have felt exhausted in the fight I was going through.  I remember the first time I read this scripture above in the message version of the bible and, like the song that I mentioned earlier, it presented God in a new light to me.

When I read the part about God making prayer out of our wordless sighs and our aching groans… It was just clear to me that I mean so much more to God than I could even imagine and He truly does know me on a level that I simply cannot fully comprehend with my mind!

The visual that I have is of a child just climbing up in his daddy’s lap and crying.  The child doesn’t have to say a word, his father knows exactly what is troubling him and simply climbing up in His lap puts him in the place where his daddy can comfort him…We don’t have to come to God with a bunch of words… Sometimes just setting time aside to climb up in His lap is all we need to do… At that point, He interprets the sighs and feelings of our heart.

This perspective became alive to me after reading that scripture.  I know there have been so many times that I just didn’t have words but my heart was so heavy… In those seasons, sometimes all I could do was just say, Jesus and then sit there and breathe.   Yet somehow, I knew He heard me and was right there.  It didn’t necessarily make sense in my mind, but my spirit just knew it to be truth…When I read that scripture in the context of God interpreting our sighs and groans, for me it put words to an experience that I had just known to be true for a long time…

There are things about God that we will never fully understand with our minds but there will be a confirmation in our heart (spirit) that will just KNOW that what is being conveyed is truth!  It may not be rational to our minds, but we feel an undeniable YES in our spirit!

1 Corinthians 2:14

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

This is part of communicating with God and Him communicating with us.  Sometimes there is just a peace in knowing that God is working on our behalf, even when, in our minds, everything appears to be going in the wrong direction.  Many times in my life I have felt so completely out of control and going in a seemingly downward spiral and then, from deep inside my spirit, I say something like, God is Faithful! 

 

That is not something that was discerned by my mind but rather my spirit confirming what it knows to be the truth despite my circumstances!

No matter what we are going through God is faithful to help us and bring us through!  Sometimes you may see an immediate miracle breakthrough, other times there may be a step by step learning process that ultimately brings us to a place of complete healing, I’ve experienced both in my life.  I’ve seen the miraculous immediate answer to prayer and learned specific lessons from it, and I’ve learned different things from having gone through the seasons where my prayers were not immediately answered in the way I anticipated and I had to take progressive steps toward my breakthrough.

I’ve come to realize that sometimes my prayers and desires were ahead of my ability to carry what I asked for and I reached a roadblock of sorts.  At least in my experiences, during those seasons where I perceived I was not moving forward, God was actually equipping me and strengthening me to handle what was His heart to provide but I was not yet equipped or ready to handle.

I would liken it to a teenager anxiously awaiting his drivers license.  The liberty and freedom that comes with that permit also carries a necessary maturity and responsibility.  Although they may ask, the reason we do not permit 10 year old children to drive cars is that they are not yet developed to a point of maturity where they could handle that responsibility.  The reason we do not give a 15 year old a license is because they have not yet completed the training that was necessary to carry that responsibility.  But when they have completed the training and accomplished all of the prerequisites that were set up for them in order for them to step forward in that freedom, then the metaphorical road blocks are lifted and they can again begin moving forward in a new level of maturity and understanding.

For those of us who have driven for 20 years, we realize that a 16 year old does not know everything that is needed to be known about driving once they get that license, but rather, they have reached the place where a new level of freedom and maturity begins.  And it is not that different from our experience in Christianity.

We are all in a different place from a spiritual perspective, we have been given everything that we need in Christ, but we will always be experiencing different levels of growth, maturity and victories.  Sometimes we may think that we are ready for something that God knows we are not yet prepared to handle.

In those seasons there may be frustration when we ask God for the open door or to take us to the next level…when He knows that we are not quite as prepared as we think we are to handle the responsibilities at that level.

When that happens, it’s important to realize that God is faithful and His Word is truth!  We can continue to pray and believe God for our breakthrough and His Word says that we will receive it!  In my own experience, the answer has not always been according to my timeframes but, He has always been faithful to complete the work that He has begun in me!

Matthew 21:22

Amplified Bible (AMP)

²²And whatever you ask for in prayer, having faith and [really] believing, you will receive.

I’ve met so many people, including myself, who have been frustrated because they didn’t feel like God was answering their prayers in the time frames that they felt that He needed to.   And for that reason, I believe it is important to have briefly shared my experiences in that arena.  I don’t believe that God is not hearing your prayer or that He will not answer it, but rather, in His infinite knowledge of what you want and what you need, He knows what will help you the most and when it will be the most beneficial for you to receive it as you continue to pursue your destiny!  At the proper time, you will receive your breakthrough if you continue walking in faith in Him.

Galatians 6:9

New International Version (NIV)

⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

So, in those seasons where we feel like we are in limbo and are not sure what or how to pray…what should we pray…?

Teach us to Pray

 

In the book of Matthew chapter 6, Jesus addresses how we should pray.  I would encourage you to read the entire chapter of Matthew 6 because there are many things that are addressed as it pertains to our attitudes when we pray and even why we pray but for this chapter in this book, I would like to focus on verses 9-13

Matthew 6:9-13

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁹Pray, therefore, like this: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed (kept holy) be Your name.

    ¹⁰Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

    ¹¹Give us this day our daily bread.

    ¹²And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven (^[a]left, remitted, and let go of the debts, and have ^[b]given up resentment against) our debtors.

    ¹³And lead (bring) us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

What Jesus modeled here was not intended to be an exact word for word repetition, but rather an example of what to address in prayer when talking to God and I would say, particularly in seasons when we are struggling with where we are at and how to move forward this model an bring peace and strength to our seemingly chaotic lives.

I’m going to break this prayer down verse by verse to help make more clear what is being addressed:

⁹Pray, therefore, like this: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed (kept holy) be Your name.

Here Jesus is showing us to honor God.  He is the omnipotent creator of the universe!  He is greater than our circumstances and well equipped to handle our needs and He is our Father whom we have a very special and intimate relationship with!  He is Holy, He is God and He is our Father!  Keeping all of those things in perspective as we pray is important because that realization actually BUILDS our faith.  He’s all of those things, not just one and being a combination of all of them comes a deeper understanding of who we are IN Him.

                ¹⁰Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus is saying here to invite God to reign in your life as Lord and King so that His will on this earth and in your life would be manifested as it is in heaven.  As we have addressed in previous chapters, there is significant authority that we have been delegated to us on this earth by God, through Christ!  What God has established as His will for us on this earth is outlined in His Word through His promises and it parallels what His will looks like as it has been established in Heaven!

If the body of Christ were walking in the fullness of the authority that we have been commissioned to walk in, things on this earth would look very different and I believe this is what Christ was exampling here in verse 10 as He showed us to pray that the will of God for His people in the earth would be manifested in their lives!  So that, when we are experiencing something in our life that is contrary to what God has promised in His Word, we pray that His will be done on this earth where He has commissioned us to exercise authority in His name just like it is in Heaven.

¹¹Give us this day our daily bread.

Our daily bread here is indicative of anything that we would need for life and sustenance.  It could also be interpreted, Give us this day our needed provisions and I believe that Jesus is just showing us that all that we need is found in God and furthermore that presenting our requests directly to Him is an acceptable aspect of communicating with God.

Some people are uncomfortable asking God for things that they want or need and Jesus is putting that thought process to rest when He modeled for us that asking God for things is absolutely part of how we talk to God.

 ¹²And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven (^[a]left, remitted, and let go of the debts, and have ^[b]given up resentment against) our debtors.

Forgiveness is an essential aspect of who we are as Christians!  We have been forgiven of a lifetime of sin and made righteous through Christ even when we did not deserve to be.  God expects for us to also extend forgiveness to those who have wronged us as Luke 12:48 says, to whom much is given much is required.  Forgiving others and not being bound by bitterness is part of who we are in Christ.  It is Gods nature flowing through us as we extend the very grace that was shown toward us to others.

    ¹³And lead (bring) us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

When the devil attacks us we can ask God for assistance in combating him.  Doing so is also another aspect of prayer.  James 5:16 says that the fervent prayer of the righteous avails much.  So when Satan attacks us with temptation, we can ask God for the strength to overcome and talk to Him about what is concerning us.  I believe that is specifically what Jesus was modeling here.  When the devil comes in to steal, kill and destroy, we can go to our Father God and ask Him for some guidance and breakthrough because He is our King and the Lord of our life and we function under the authority of His power forever…Amen

Some have taken this passage of scripture, often referred to as The Lords Prayer, and made it a prayer of repetition that they say daily during their obligatory time with God without considering the depth of what was being said.  I don’t believe that it was intended by Jesus for the disciples to only pray that prayer every time they pray but simply to use it as a guide in seasons when they are struggling and don’t know what to pray or perhaps to even be an example for people who might not know what they are allowed to ask God for to have clarity.

Like many, I grew up in church and talking to God was a part of my daily experience.  But for those who did not, I can imagine how confusing, intimidating or even humbling it might be to talk to the God who you have never spoken with before!  As a result, I believe that Jesus was modeling and saying in this passage,  Ask whatever you need, talk to God about it, but just remember where you came from and who you are talking to when you do.  You’ve been forgiven of a lot, so make sure and pay that forward and keep in mind that there is nothing too big for God!  When you find yourself in a pinch, go to Him and ask Him for help.  He’s the God who created the universe and is the Lord and King of your life, but He is also your father…He’ll help you beat the evil that attempts to derail your life through His power and glory…(amen-so be it)

 

I realize that sometimes it is hard to fathom the love that God has for us and as a result it may be difficult to confidently go to Him in prayer.  But throughout His Word, it is repeatedly confirmed that God loves us and He has asked us to come to Him with whatever is concerning us.  If we need peace, he will give us rest (Matthew 11:28).  If we need healing, He is our healer (Exodus 15:26, Isaiah 53:5, 2 Peter 2:24).  If we need wisdom and guidance, He gives it freely (James 1:5).  If we need a friend, He is one that sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24).  If we need a father, He is the father to the fatherless (Psalms 68:5).  If we need provision, He is the Lord God our provider (Philippians 4:19).

When we place Him in the position of Lord in our life, His promises become our inheritance.

2 Corinthians 1:19-20

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁹For the Son of God, Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who has been preached among you by us, by myself, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not Yes and No; but in Him it is [always the divine] Yes.

    ²⁰For as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes [answer] in Him [Christ]. For this reason we also utter the Amen (so be it) to God through Him [in His Person and by His agency] to the glory of God.

God is who He says He is, you are who He says you are and you can do whatever He says you can do… He says come boldly to Him, make your requests known and He will answer your prayers!

So what are you waiting for…?  Your ability to talk directly to God is an essential part of the covenant that Christ provided for you!  That restored relationship with God makes it possible for you to go directly to your Daddy, sit on His lap and tell him everything that is going on in your life.

Don’t function beneath what Christ provided for you… The provision is there for a reason.  Take advantage of it!

 

Disgrace -vs- Grace

Chapter 21- Disgrace –vs- Grace

(this is a rough draft chapter from my latest book)

Romans 5:20-21

The Message (MSG)

 ^20-21All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

 

I am what could be defined as a Grace Teacher and the subject of Gods grace is a significant aspect of the passion of ministry that I burn for.  I firmly believe that the grace of God covers all of our sin and makes us righteous in His sight no matter who we’ve been or what we’ve done!  Furthermore, I am convinced that the sacrifice that Christ made for our sin not only covers everything that we have done in the past but will also cover anything we might do in the future!  I believe, just as was explained in the last chapter, that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus not because of anything that we have done but only because of what Christ did for us.  And on this subject I will not bend no matter what religious leaders, denominational doctrines or legalisms might argue!  BUT… I believe that this freedom in Christ where we experience the grace of God (Gods unmerited favor) and walk in His righteousness comes with a responsibility on our part to properly steward our lives as we live under it!

I have seen a significant lack of balance in what some are teaching under the Grace doctrine umbrella and it bothers me.  What I have noticed is that there is a growing philosophy that Christians can do what they want (sin or not) under the covering of grace and it’s ok with God because we are not made righteous in our own deeds but because of Christ.  I believe that this teaching is an intentional attempt by the devil to deceive people into believing a lie and embracing a doctrine that will reap destruction and death in their lives!

2 Timothy 4:3-4

Amplified Bible (AMP)

³For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold,

    ⁴And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions.

 

A few years ago, I had a young man contact me online who adopted this disgraceful stance on grace.  He assumed that I, because grace is a subject that I am passionate about, would also be in league with his unbalanced thinking and in agreement with the willful and blatantly overt stance that he took in flaunting the sin he was committing.  And, to his surprise, he was wrong.  I could not and would not condone his sin and when he asked me what I thought, I had to set him straight on the fact that I believed that he had bought into a lie about who he was in Christ.

2 Timothy 4:1-2

Amplified Bible (AMP)

 ¹I CHARGE [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His kingdom:

    ²Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable. [Whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.] And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching.

I’d like to point out that the key point in these scriptures above in being a pastor who can effectively speak into the lives of people is the final sentence in verse 2, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching. 

So many might read that passage of scripture and assume that they have not only a right but an obligation to show people where their lives our out of balance with the Word of God, and although I would agree to an extent, if it is not done with an inexhaustible patience and teaching IN LOVE, the results, most often will be fruitless…Sadly, many would miss the entire point of this scripture because they are not really interested in what is the intended tone of this message and ultimately the heart of God- reconciliation and restoration.

When the young man online realized that I was not in his bandwagon as a supporter he assumed that I was judging him, which could not be further from the truth.  The truth of the matter is that the Word of God is clear in regard to how we should handle sin in our lives and the responsibility of taking dominion over the devil and sin is left in our lap.  From a biblical perspective, we have been given the victory and authority over sin but having the authority and exercising the authority are two completely different things.

I’m simply not convinced that grace includes continuing to live a life in bondage and addiction to sin.  Simply put, Christ freed us from that bondage!  To remain enslaved to sins destructive desires is to operate far beneath our intended position by God.  Furthermore, I believe that willfully operating in bondage to sin, ultimately will keep us from fulfilling that destiny in the capacity that we were placed here by God to fulfill because the wages of sin is still death… Jesus, when tempted by the devil didn’t make excuse for sin and the temptation that He encountered, He exercised His dominion over it and so should we!  The freedom that Christ purchased came at too great a price for us to not walk in the fullness of it!

1 Corinthians 6:12, 17-20, 23

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹²Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power…

¹⁷But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.

¹⁸Shun immorality and all sexual looseness [flee from impurity in thought, word, or deed]. Any other sin which a man commits is one outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

    ¹⁹Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own,

    ²⁰You were bought with a price [purchased with a ^[a]preciousness and paid for, ^[b]made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body…

 ²³For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

At the very least, because we reap what we sow, bondage to sin holds us back from living in the fullness of freedom!  Even though Christ has died for the forgiveness of our sins, to continue walking in the bondage of sin when freedom is available is settling for far less than God intends for us!

I would equate sin attached to our lives slowing us down and impeding our progress to barnacles on a ship in the ocean.  The hull of a ship is created to cut through the water like a knife with as little resistance as possible so that the ship can travel quickly and efficiently to its destination.  When barnacles attach to the bottom of the ship, they look sometimes like large rocks or boulders and they create drag because they interrupt the lines of the ship so that the are no longer uniform and as a result, slow the ship down by effecting its hydrodynamics.

This is exactly what sin does in our lives, apart from setting us up for death (because the wages of sin is death), sin keeps us from being all that God intends for us to be!

Matthew 6:24

Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁴No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be ^[a]against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (^[b]deceitful riches, money, possessions, or ^[c]whatever is trusted in).

Matthew 6 addresses the subject of serving two masters, but another chapter in the bible also addresses the subject of masters.  In Romans chapter 6, the apostle Paul writes about sin being our master as well.

Romans 6:12-14

New International Version (NIV)

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

I think that there is so much that can be derived from these 3 scriptures but I believe a key emphasis relates to us, as children of God, taking responsibility for our lives and not allowing sin to rule over us!  According to Romans 6:14, it is because we are under the grace of God that we do not have to allow sin to be our master, NOT that we are to be tolerant of it in our lives as so many have proposed!

I believe without a shadow of a doubt that Gods grace was designed to cover us IF we sin, but I do not believe it is was ever intended to be an excuse for us to tolerate sin or live with it!  Sin is a choice that most of the time is completely avoidable depending upon the environments we place ourselves in.  It is a given that, sometimes things blindside us and we may respond emotionally or in a flesh driven response and as a result we may sin, but I believe that these can be the exceptions and not the rule for us as a believer.

You are more than you have become

Galatians 5:16

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁶But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).

I realize that there may be times where sin happens and in those occasions, Gods grace, without a doubt abounds!  But I believe more firmly in the inheritance that we have in our covenant with Christ as He lives in and through us, than I do in sins ability to dominate us!  I’m convinced that it is in the fullness of Gods grace that we can live victoriously over sin and do not have to be subject to it.

I realize that this is contrary to what many will teach.  Many pastors will take the position, that sin is inevitable in our lives, as if we are predisposed to it and don’t really have any control over it… I simply disagree with that theology and I think that, most of the time, it is a bit of a cop out.

It is true that sin will always be in the earth.  It is also very true that as long as we are in this world, temptation to sin will have to be something that we contend with.  But I take the stance that all of the works of the Devil, including temptation to sin is covered in my covenant with God through Christ and as a result it is ALL under my feet!  Because of this, I am convinced that I DON’T HAVE TO SIN, contrary to what I was inaccurately taught growing up!

I’m not saying that we have to live by a bunch of rules or legalisms or that we need to beat ourselves up if/when we sin…I’m just stating that sin is not part of my inheritance in Christ and I CAN live above it if I choose to walk out my life controlled by and submitted to the Spirit of God!

Now to be fair, is sin likely to be something that I never do again…?  Probably not likely, but if I take the approach in my mind that sin is subject to me as opposed to what has often been taught in that I am simply subject to sin, then my likelihood to excuse sin as part of my predisposition rather than my responsibility to walk above will be much less.

If you tell someone that sin is an inevitable aspect of their existence then they will always feel helpless in overcoming it.  But if you teach them who they are in Christ and the authority that they have over sin and then show them that they can walk in freedom from sin according to the Word of God, at that point you have exampled liberty and given them the necessary tools to defeat darkness in their lives!

If you tell your children not to have sex and then give them condoms…what message are you really sending?

Satan has convinced us that we are not above his influence in our lives as it pertains to sin, and that is simply not biblical!  I believe that this is one of the most significant deceptions that the devil has solidified in the minds and hearts of the believer because it is so easy to take the If I can’t beat em’, join em’ stance if you believe that you have no choice in the matter!

I cannot tell you the numbers of people who contact me after coming to understand that, in Christ, they are new creations and are predisposed to righteousness and the fruit of the Spirit rather than sin…and as a result, they do not have to sin!   Many have told me that they have never been taught who they really are in Christ before and just simply took a stance that they might as well enjoy sin if they couldn’t beat it!  And I understand where they are coming from because, I was in the same boat until I began to study this topic in depth and saw the multitudes of scriptures throughout the Word of God that contradicted what I had been taught about this subject!

When I realized that I did not have to sin anymore, my mindsets changed about who I was and what level of involvement I had in the decision-making aspect of the sin process.  In looking back at it now, most of the sins I have committed over the years were not only my choice, but a great majority of them were heavily premeditated!  I realized, at least in my own life, I didn’t fall into sin, I stepped into it…and those were NOT the same!

If my free will allows me to choose to step into it, then, by default, it also allows me to not step into it if I so choose.  But here’s where grace steps into that scenario, without Christ, I would be powerless to choose to live in opposition against Satan and his devices, but I have the trump card that changes everything as it pertains to the power of the devil, and that is that the God who created the universe lives in me!  I am literally the temple of the Holy Spirit and I can choose to honor God with my life choices!  It’s not in my power that I can walk in complete victory over Satan but through Christ that I can do all things!

Philippians 4:13

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹³I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who ^[a]infuses inner strength into me; I am ^[b]self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].

Some may argue, Everybody sins Aaron, the bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of what God would have for them… and to an extent, I agree.  Undeniably, we have all made mistakes and sinned against God!  That’s why grace is such a gift and so necessary for our lives…BUT, my argument is, I don’t believe that we have to continue sinning just because we always have.  It is easier to adopt the predisposition sin position, but I’m convinced that our covenant relationship with God provides us with MORE than what we have experienced in the past!  I believe that my God is the God of MORE THAN ENOUGH as it pertains to overcoming ANYTHING that the devil my throw my way!

Just because I haven’t always walked in that authority or refuse tomorrow to do so doesn’t mean it’s not available to me!  On the contrary, whether or not ANYONE EVER walks in the fullness of what I am addressing here does not solidify or negate the truth of it!  The truth of Gods Word is truth if NO ONE ever chooses to walk in the fullness of it!  And the Grace of God abounds in spite of them!  If we choose to sin, Grace abounds, if we walk in freedom, Grace abounds!  I just believe that God created us for MORE than we have become and I’m equally convinced that a significant aspect of why we have not reached the potential that we could have or should have is because we are not fully operating in the authority that we were created to walk in over ALL the devices of the devil…not the least of which is…SIN.

1 Corinthians 10:13-15

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹³For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not^[a]adjusted and ^[b]adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to ^[c]a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.

    ¹⁴Therefore, my dearly beloved, shun (keep clear away from, avoid by flight if need be) any sort of idolatry (of loving or venerating anything more than God).

    ¹⁵I am speaking as to intelligent (sensible) men. Think over and make up your minds [for yourselves] about what I say. [I appeal to your reason and your discernment in these matters.]

As I consider the unbalanced grace doctrines that I have seen so many embrace and preach excusing sin in their lives and assuming because they are saved that God somehow doesn’t care that they continue living lives bound by sin, I felt it absolutely necessary to set the record straight, at least for those of you who are under my sphere of influence and reading this book right now.

I believe that the Grace of God has been disgraced by those who have intentionally used it to be a greencard for sin…and that was never Gods intent when He extended His grace toward us!  The grace of God can and will cover all of our sin but just because it does, does not give us a green light to do what we want and assume that God is cool with it!  As a matter of fact this disgraced grace mentality is far removed from the completed work of freedom that Christ established for us when He overcame all the works of the devil on the cross! What has been adopted in this dis-grace doctrine is literally a perversion of something that God intended to be so much more liberating and life-changing!  We are NOT slaves to sin anymore!

What God intended for us as it pertains to sin in our lives is abundantly clear throughout scripture and is very adequately conveyed in Romans Chapter 6.

Romans 6:5-14

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁵For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God].

    ⁶We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.

    ⁷For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men].

    ⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

    ⁹Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.

    ¹⁰For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].

    ¹¹Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.

    ¹²Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions.

    ¹³Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and ^[a]faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and ^[b]faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

    ¹⁴For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God's favor and mercy].

Verses 12 and 13 say, LET NOT SIN RULE, DO NOT CONTINUE YEILDING!  These are yet another call to action from the Word of God compelling us to live above Satan’s dictate!  What I am referring to here is not anti-grace or somehow making it about our righteousness, but rather the FULLNESS of the grace of God and His righteousness extended toward us as we walk above sin in the authority that Christ provided for us!

In His unmerited favor (grace) God provided coverage for any aspect of sins bondage in our lives: Our previous sins-COVERED by grace, our future sins-COVERED by grace, our predisposition to sin and a sinful nature-COVERED by grace!  Sin in every form and bondage is covered by the grace of God and we are no longer slaves to its authority!

Real, God ordained grace, does not give us permission to sin, but rather it gives us permission to NOT sin by the authority of God and the strength of His Holy Spirit residing in us!

Romans 6:15-23

The Message (MSG)

What Is True Freedom?

 ^15-18So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!

 ¹⁹I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?

 ^20-21As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.

 ^22-23But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.

As is his nature, the devil will always try to steal, kill and destroy but you do not have to be a willing participant in his attempted destruction of your life!  YOU DON’T HAVE TO SIN!

Romans 8:37

Amplified Bible (AMP)

³⁷Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors ^[a]and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.

God accepts you just as you are, but He loves you too much to let you stay that way… Today is a new day, choose to walk in the fullness of who He created you to be!  As it pertains to the authority you have and the authority you are exercising, you ARE more than you have become!

God’s Not Mad At You…

Chapter 19-God’s Not Mad At You!

(This is a rough draft chapter from my latest book)

Romans 8:37-39

Amplified Bible (AMP)

³⁷Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors ^[a]and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.

    ³⁸For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things ^[b]impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers,

    ³⁹Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When speaking with an elderly man about Jesus he told me, Son, I believe in Jesus and I am saved but I’ve done a lot of bad things in my life that I’ve asked for forgiveness of but I don’t feel worthy going to church.

I’ve heard this same perspective from all age groups so many times that I honestly could not count.  People wholeheartedly believe that God hates them for the things that they have done!

There are so many misperceptions of God that people have and honestly, I really don’t blame them for having them considering what they have been taught.  The example that people have had displayed to them by Christians would leave most with a jaded perspective of who God is and how He feels about mankind.  I’ve been in the churches where the pastor has preached himself into a red-faced frenzy about God hating everything from women who wear dresses that don’t go past the ankles to men with hair below their collar.  Honestly, it’s ridiculous!  What I have found is that many pastors have used their positional authority to preach against their own prejudices, personal strongholds and hatred from the pulpits and it’s no wonder that people around the world feel that God hates them for something they have done because that’s what the Christians told them, and they must be right because they’re pastor said it and he’s a man of God…

 

As hard as this truth may be to swallow for some people, those who preach hatred and condemnation from their pulpits may not really even know God!

1 John 4:8

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁸He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love.

 

That doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not saved or going to heaven, but sadly, they have never really known His true nature if they see Him and preach about Him primarily from a position of judgment and hatred!

Here is a practical example of what I am talking about.  Depending upon your proximity to me, you will understand who I am on a more intimate level.  People who have never met me but have heard about me from someone else will have a perspective that could be completely different than who I really am.

For instance, if you talked to the guy who almost ran over my son and did hit me with his car in the pre-school parking lot a few months ago, he might describe me as a very angry man.  If you talked to someone who came to my church once and saw me on a day that I had something very pressing to do, they might tell you that I was a very focused and driven man, maybe even intimidating.  If you talked to someone who has attended one of my sermons, depending on the topic and emphasis of what was being presented they might have a number of things that they would perceive that I seemed to be to them…but the truth of their perspective is, if they told my wife those things about me, she would have a very unique ability to set the record straight about who I REALLY am… Because we have been together more than half my life now and she knows me more intimately than any other person on earth!

Now here’s where it gets tricky… Depending upon the totality of the circumstances, there are times that I have been angry, there are times that I have been driven, there are times that I have been intimidating but the people who really KNOW me would likely tell you that my most defining characteristic is that I genuinely and deeply care about people… Now, that may not seem to line up with all the other things that people may have said about me, but ask yourself, did they know the real me?  If they didn’t know me as the man who loves to help people reach their God ordained destiny, then they only learned about an aspect of my personality that was likely tied to a specific event that took me OUT of my normal vibe.

Loving people is not something that I have always been able to do easily, as a matter of fact, there was a season that I was so fed up with all of the ridiculous religious stuff that I was seeing that I wanted NOTHING to do with people who call themselves christians… I didn’t love most them, and for the most part, I didn’t even like them!… but as we talk about in the chapter on the fruit of the spirit, all of God’s personality traits are accessible to us.  We can walk in His love, we can experience His peace, and we can exercise His joy when we allow Him to change who we are into who He is!  And, over the years, God has shown me how to genuinely care about people that I used to avoid contact with as much as humanly possible.  It was ultimately a lesson learned in allowing God to love those that I would consider unlovable THROUGH me…and, very honestly, it has not always been easy…

Case in point: A few months ago, I went to a parole hearing for the man who tried to kill me four years ago.  His actions cost me my career, multiple months of physical therapy, several surgeries, countless hours of severe difficulties and to date nearly $300,000 in personal finances.  I did NOTHING to this man to deserve this.  As a matter of fact, I was trying to help him on the day he attacked me.  It was a pointless crime.

When I walked into the parole hearing room in this state prison, the parole board expected that I would be there to oppose his parole.  But I wasn’t there in an attempt to extend his punishment.  I explained to the board that as far as I was concerned, if they deemed him ready to be paroled, I would not contend with it at all.  I then told them that I drove 8 hours to be there for the hearing to say something very specific if they would allow me to.

When I spoke to the young man I explained to him what his actions have cost me over the past four years and told him that I did not bring those things up in an attempt to have him relive his sin but rather to tell him that when I say I forgive you, that it means I have forgiven you of much!  I went on to speak life into this young man and explained to him that he did not have to be defined by this previous season of his life and that he didn’t have to go through life making the same mistakes that landed him in the place where he was presently residing, furthermore, that I believed that God had a plan for his life and if he would submit his will to God’s then God would take his life and make something of it.

Everyone in the room was floored, the parole board didn’t know what to say, the father of the young man sat weeping in the back of the room, the young man who attacked me sat there dumbfounded…  After I was excused from the parole meeting, the Corrections Officer who was assigned to me while I was at the prison escorted me out of the razor wire gate and said to me, I know why you did that back there…It’s what he did…

His use of the word “he” confused me and I asked, …he?

 Jesus, he responded, they didn’t deserve His forgiveness but He forgave them anyway….

The prison guard was correct, I was able to forgive and even driven to show this man the Love of God because I am convinced that is EXACTLY what Jesus would do!

Jesus was God in the flesh on this earth!  He exemplified in his actions EXACTLY who God is and how we can live when we allow the Spirit of God to live through us.

Jesus knew God like NO MAN had ever known Him!  The level of intimacy and relationship that Jesus had with God was deeper than anyone ever knew before!  Previous prophets and leaders who wrote the Old Testament, understood as much about God as He revealed to them but they didn’t know God on the level that Jesus did!  And they didn’t know God in the way that He ultimately planned that we would know Him!

When Jesus came to this earth, He changed EVERYTHING.  Our relationship with God changed, our authority in this earth changed, even how God was able to view us changed for ETERNITY!

1 John 4:9-12

New Living Translation (NLT)

 ⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

 ¹¹ Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. ¹² No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

 

Previous covenants between God and man were imperfect and left us with an imperfect and (in many ways) impersonal relationship with God.  However, when Jesus died for our sins He restored our relationship with God to the point where ,when God sees us, He doesn’t see our sin or our shortcomings any more, but rather sees us as His children who He loves without end!

It’s not that God didn’t love us before, but our sin separated us from the intimacy that we were created to have with Him.  As a result, we could only understand who He was to us in part.  However, once our relationship with Him was restored, He was able to be ALL to us that He desired to be.

Jesus, the man who knew Him better than any other man EVER, explained to us that God was first and foremost LOVE.  That He was not holding our sin over our head with hatred in His heart toward us, but rather that He loved us so much that He would do whatever it took to free us from sins bondages!

I’m convinced that a significant reason that God hates sin so much is because it keeps His children from being what He created them to be in the fullness and freedom that He created them to walk in!  Like a father would hate the shackles that bound his son, God hates the sin that keeps us from the relationship and ultimately freedom that He would have for us in Him!  And in His LOVE He provided the necessary means for our freedom!

As I addressed in Chapter 18, God’s people do not always reflect God’s heart.  Actually, they respond quite to the contrary many times!  But, I’m here to present a balance for the misquoted scriptures and legalistic doctrines that so many Christian churches have taught as gospel and have lived in bondage to themselves!

So many believe God to be some lightening bolt wielding tyrant in heaven who is just looking for people to screw up so he can get His kicks off of making them suffer.  This couldn’t be any further from the truth that is presented in Gods Word!

There were times that God got angry with man throughout the old testament, and there were times that God expressed His frustration with people through the prophets that were set up as a voice to His people.  But, those were temporary parking lot issues where God expressed how He felt about a situation but it was not intended by God for man to view Him as ALWAYS that way.  This is why it was so important for Jesus, who knew Him best to set the record straight on who God really is and who He desired to be for His children…aka- you and me.

Romans 5:8

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁸But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.

If we only read the Old Testament, then I would be inclined to not understand all of who God is to us and perhaps I would have a different perspective on Him than I do today, but I’m so thankful for the balance that is presented in scripture through the life of Jesus!  He offered to us the clarity that was absent outside of an intimate relationship with God and even provided for us the ability to have the SAME kind of relationship and intimacy with God that He experienced without having to concern ourselves with the sin and bondage that separated us from God previously!

So, let me set the record straight, regardless of what you have been told by Christians or pastors or whoever… God is not mad at you!  He loves you more than you would EVER understand!  As a matter of fact, Romans 5:8 above states, that it was because of His love for us WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS that Christ died for us!  Jesus didn’t come to institute some legalistic hatefilled religion that so many have exemplified, but rather, He came to reveal the true nature and desires of a Loving God toward men and women who were lost in the bondage of sin and destruction!

John 14:8-11

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁸Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father [cause us to see the Father--that is all we ask]; then we shall be satisfied.

    ⁹Jesus replied, Have I been with all of you for so long a time, and do you not recognize and know Me yet, Philip? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say then, Show us the Father?

    ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? What I am telling you I do not say on My own authority and of My own accord; but the Father Who lives continually in Me does the (^[a]His) works (His own miracles, deeds of power).

    ¹¹Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the sake of the [very] works themselves. [If you cannot trust Me, at least let these works that I do in My Father's name convince you.]

If you have seen me you have seen the Father… My goodness, could it be any more clearly stated?!  When we see the life of Jesus and the love and compassion that He constantly taught about and portrayed in his lifestyle, how could we NOT understand the true nature of God!?  Throughout the new testament, the only time we see Jesus even getting angry is when pompous, mislead religious leaders were not properly portraying the true nature of God and as a result, shedding an improper light on who God is because of their positional authority and expected ability by the people under them to properly relate God’s principles to the masses.  Even when the religious leaders pulled His beard out, struck Him in the face, had Him beaten to the point where He was barley recognizable and then crucified on a cross for crimes that He did not commit, Jesus cried out to God and in an understanding and reflection of that intimate relationship that He had with the Father, asked God to forgive them because they did not truly understand what they were doing!

Luke 23:1-25, 32-34

Amplified Bible (AMP)

Luke 23

 ¹THEN THE whole assembly of them got up and conducted [Jesus] before Pilate.

    ²And they began to accuse Him, asserting, We found this ^[a]Man perverting (misleading, corrupting, and turning away) our nation and forbidding to pay tribute to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One), a King!

    ³So Pilate asked Him, Are You the King of the Jews? And He answered him, [^[b]It is just as] you say. [I AM.]

    ⁴And Pilate said to the chief priests and the throngs, I find no guilt or crime in this Man.

    ⁵But they were urgent and emphatic, saying, He stirs up and excites the people, teaching throughout all Judea–from Galilee, where He began, even to this place.

    ⁶Upon hearing this, Pilate asked whether the Man was a Galilean.

    ⁷And when he found out [certainly] that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him up to Herod [a higher authority], who was also in Jerusalem in those days.

    ⁸Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had eagerly desired to see Him for a long time because of what he had heard concerning Him, and he was hoping to witness some sign (some striking evidence or spectacular performance) done by Him.

    ⁹So he asked Him many questions, but He made no reply.

    ¹⁰Meanwhile, the chief priests and the scribes stood by, continuing vehemently and violently to accuse Him.

    ¹¹And Herod, with his soldiers, treated Him with contempt and scoffed at and ridiculed Him; then, dressing Him up in bright and gorgeous apparel, he sent Him back to Pilate.

    ¹²And that very day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other–[though] they had been at enmity before this.

    ¹³Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people,

    ¹⁴And said to them, You brought this Man before me as One Who was perverting and misleading and ^[c]turning away and corrupting the people; and behold, after examining Him before you, I have not found any offense (crime or guilt) in this Man in regard to your accusations against Him;

    ¹⁵No, nor indeed did Herod, for he sent Him back to us; behold, He has done nothing deserving of death.

    ¹⁶I will therefore chastise Him and ^[d]deliver Him amended (reformed, taught His lesson) and release Him.

    ^17[e]For it was necessary for him to release to them one prisoner at the Feast.

    ¹⁸But they all together raised a deep cry [from the depths of their throats], saying, Away with this Man! Release to us Barabbas!

    ¹⁹He was a man who had been thrown into prison for raising a riot in the city, and for murder.

    ²⁰Once more Pilate called to them, wishing to release Jesus;

    ²¹But they kept shouting out, Crucify, crucify Him!

    ²²A third time he said to them, Why? What wrong has He done? I have found [no offense or crime or guilt] in Him nothing deserving of death; I will therefore chastise Him [^[f]in order to teach Him better] and release Him.

    ²³But they were insistent and urgent, demanding with loud cries that He should be crucified. And their voices prevailed (accomplished their purpose).

    ²⁴And Pilate gave sentence, that what they asked should be done.

    ²⁵So he released the man who had been thrown into prison for riot and murder, for whom they continued to ask, but Jesus he delivered up to be done with as they willed.

    ³²Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be executed with Him.

    ³³And when they came to the place which is called The Skull [Latin: Calvary; Hebrew: Golgotha], there they crucified Him, and [along with] the criminals, one on the right and one on the left.

    ³⁴And Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they divided His garments and distributed them by casting lots for them.

 

While they were smacking Him, did He retaliate…?  While they were beating Him, did He accuse them of their sin…?  While they were crucifying Him, did He condemn them…?  No, and they were sinning against Jesus in the most graphic and direct ways possible and even then, the cry of Jesus was Father forgive them!  They knew what they were doing was wrong, but Jesus recognized that they didn’t understand the depth of what they were doing against the one who loved them more than they could ever imagine!  Jesus example exactly how God feels toward a sinful man with each step that He took toward crucifixion.   Each sinful act was not responded to in judgment, it was responded to in love!

All of us knew when we sinned that we were doing wrong.  That’s a given.  However, how God views our sin and us is drastically different than we have ever or probably ever will totally understand on this side of eternity!   What we have to do, is submit to the fact that this is what God says about us in His Word and even if we do not understand how He could or why He would love us or forgive us, that it is His desire to do so. To have a relationship with us that is not centered around being bound by sin and the deceptions of the enemy is what He desires for us emphatically and wholeheartedly!

God DOES want you to know how He feels about you.  He wants to express it to you personally in a relationship with Him that no human being before Christ was able to even comprehend!  He literally wants to live in and through you just like He did Jesus.  When He does, those things in our nature that we never thought would allow us to express the love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control that are HIS nature are lived out though us because God lives in us!

Mark 9:23

New Living Translation (NLT)

 ²³ “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

Another translation says, All things are possible to them who believe!  As I bring this chapter to a close I want to say one more time, God loves you!  I wish I could scream it at the top of my voice for emphasis!  He’s not mad at you!  He’s not looking for you to make up for your sins or somehow pay penance that you were not created to be able to pay!  He just wants you to embrace the love that He displayed to you through His son, Jesus and then extend your belief in Him enough to allow Him to start to teach you how to be the you that He created you to be in a real relationship with the living and loving God of the Universe!

It’s amazing to me when I think about it, but the God who created the Universe in all of its splendor loves you and calls you His child!  You are special to Him and it is His desire to show you the depths of that love one day at a time for the rest of eternity!

Ephesians 2:8-9

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁸For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (^[a]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God;

    ⁹Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law's demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.]

Sweetness for Bitterness

Rough Draft Chapter from my next book… It’s the 15th chapter that i’ve written but i’m not sure if it won’t be placed earlier in the book.

Chapter 15- Sweetness for Bitterness

 

Ephesians 4:31-32

Amplified Bible (AMP)           

³¹Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).

    ³²And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.

 

There is a laundry list of things listed in Ephesians 4:31-32 that we should make ourselves aware of as it pertains to issues that we need to rid ourselves of, but the very FIRST  on that list is bitterness.

So many of us have experienced deep emotional wounds from others who have wronged us.  The reasons for the emotional wounds and the bitterness that often follows are as vast as the number of people reading this book.  Some of you were hurt by the betrayal of a friend or spouse.  Others have experienced injustice when being passed over for a promotion that you were most qualified for.  Still others, were wounded by those who called themselves Christians but did not display the love or compassion of Christ when you needed their support… As I said, the reasons are vast but the human response to the pain is often the same… Bitterness!

When bitterness starts to set in, you begin thinking about those who wronged you and how you did not deserve the hurt that you experienced.  Then you internalize that pain, dwelling on it and meditating on the injustice or violation of trust that you experienced!

Focusing on the pain and frustration associated with all of the circumstances begins to directly affect your emotional outlook and as a coping mechanism, you begin placing walls and barriers between you and other relationships to protect yourself from being hurt again.  These walls are most often the direct response to bitterness that is taking control in your life!

Bitterness is not a stronghold that I am unfamiliar with.  I have had to take authority over it on several occasions in my own life. Like I said, We’ve all been hurt… What was interesting with one particular circumstance in my life was that I didn’t even know that I had become bitter.  In hindsight, I can now look back and see the progression and the deception that the bitterness took control with, but I honestly did not see that I was bitter at the time.

In the season that I became very bitter, for me it started by noticing repetitive things that I considered unacceptable practices by Christians, from a biblical standpoint.  I became very frustrated by the inconsistencies that I was seeing with people that I encountered who called themselves Christians but were full of hate-filled judgment and what appeared to me to be blatant self-righteousness.  As I began looking for it, I saw it more and more.  That’s the issue with looking for something to be dissatisfied with, if you are looking for it, you will most certainly find it.

Had I been more mature about the situation, I would have understood that my frustration was justified and was even a part of what God has called me to be instrumental in changing, but at the time I was overwhelmed with a number of other issues that frustrated me as well and the totality of the circumstances sent me into a bitterness down-spiral

With all of the pressures, feelings of lack of fulfillment, feelings of anger at those who had lied to me and intentionally deceived me and feelings of being used, I began grouping my frustrations into a single pot and became the left-wing version of the self-righteous Christian that I couldn’t stand as I began pointing my finger back at the church (universal) and Christians in general in hate-filled, self-righteous judgment.

Now, here is the interesting thing.  I LOVED God with all my heart!  But I HATED His bride!  The anger that I internalized completely consumed my ability to be anything but cynical as it pertained to anyone that resembled what I came to judge as religious and legalistic Church Folk.  I rationalized my growing distain and prejudice of them by saying to myself that they are all fake, judgmental and deceived.  I would go through the motions, attend church, lead worship and even preach…but bitterness was in my heart to the point that it was even reflected in what I was conveying from the pulpit!

If someone had asked me why I was bitter, I would have told them, I’m not bitter…I’m just wiser than I used to be and I see things for how they really are.  The problem with that perspective was not that I saw an inconsistency that did need to be addressed, but that I refused to see it through the eyes of love and compassion that God saw it through.  Without love, I disqualified myself from being able to speak in to those who were bound by the deception and inconsistency that I observed.

I could absolutely substantiate my position about how these Christians were acting toward people as unacceptable behavior for Christians.  After all, the New Testament is filled with scriptures on loving and not passing judgment…but I had been deceived by my own arrogance and self-righteousness into not loving and passing judgment on other Christians in the same way that they were doing to those who did not feel loved by the church.

I had literally become the reciprocal of what I had grown to despise (Which has it’s own lesson as it pertains to judge not lest you be judged).   During this season, I had resolved to relinquish my ministry credentials and pursue my secular career, which appeared to have the smile of God upon it, having received several acknowledgements and promotions in a very short time, but thank God that my wife Lisa talked me out of it because she could see what I could not in that I was allowing my frustration to stand in the way of continuing to pursue the calling that I knew God had placed in me.  So, for a period of time (that is longer than I care to admit), I lived a life of hidden bitterness, feeling constantly hostile…and I was miserable!

During this same time, my dad mentioned to me that he had seen a preacher in Nashville on television that he thought I would really like.  Of course, I was of the mindset that I was not looking to get involved in another church, especially not the church of some TV preacher that I had never heard of.  So, I dismissed my fathers advice of checking this guy out with a, Thanks but no thanks… and I forgot about it.  About four months later, my parents were planning a vacation to Nashville and asked me if I would mind taking them to a church in Nashville called The Oasis that they looked up and would like to visit.

Of course, it was their vacation and I did not have a problem taking them somewhere on their vacation if that was how they wanted to spend it.  So, when they came, we went and visited this Oasis Church.

I had to admit that when the Pastor was preaching, I really liked his style.  He seemed to be pretty real and kept my attention better than I had anticipated, so I let my guard down a little.

At the end of the service, the pastor had an alter call for people who needed prayer.  Probably fifteen people came to the front and he began praying for each one individually.  After praying for five or six people, he reached a man and started praying out loud over the man, sweetness for bitterness.  I remember thinking, that’s a good thing to pray for the guy, he probably needs to get over some bitterness in his life…So I can agree with that…   Remember, I told you before, I loved God and honestly, I loved people…I just didn’t have love for those that called themselves Christians because I didn’t see them loving the people that I loved… but, hey, I didn’t know this guy and I did believe in the power of prayer, so I stretched my hand toward this guy that this pastor was praying sweetness for bitterness over and prayed with him…

The pastor repeated the phrase sweetness for bitterness, sweetness for bitterness several times and somewhere along the line of the fifth or sixth time he said it, it was as though something cut my chest open from a spiritual perspective.

The experience and the emotion of it literally winded me and I gasped and coughed.  It was completely out of the blue and unexpected, here I was praying for this guy and the Holy Spirit had something to do in me that I did not anticipate coming.

The pastor continued to say, sweetness for bitterness over and over again and every time he said it, it was as though I was being cut again and again… As I was standing, praying for this man, I gripped the chair in front of me and after not shedding a tear in years I began to weep as I released the pent up anger and bitterness inside of me that I didn’t even realize was there.

I had no idea that I was bitter but in a moments time, the Holy Spirit revealed something to me that I didn’t even know about myself and then released me from it!  As I reflect back on my life there are only three points that were absolutely life altering where, overnight my direction completely changed.  This was one of those life-altering moments.

After I was able to recognize the bitterness for what it was in my life, I was able to combat it and grow through it.  I did have to make a practice of not allowing the bitterness to come back in, but it was interesting to me how much more clearly that I could see what the bitterness had previously blinded me from being able to perceive, particularly in the arena of the Gods love and the calling that He had placed in me.

Another thing that was particularly interesting to me was this, the circumstances that I had been frustrated about I still was not satisfied with allowing to exist but my approach to the issues changed dramatically.  The frustration was no longer a catalyst for hate-filled, self-righteous passing of judgment but a love filled desire to see changed what I knew to be inconsistent and furthermore a pursuit of wisdom regarding how to effectively confront these issues.

I knew that God had placed the desire to see change in my heart because it was His heart to see the change as well.  God loves those people as much as He loves me and with that understanding, I was now qualified to speak into them because I could approach them with love and compassion for what they were struggling with…particularly the issue of inconsistency that maybe, like me, they were completely unaware of in their life.

What I realized in all of this is that bitterness was sent as a covert enemy to infiltrate my thinking and divert my destiny.  The impact of that diversion had the potential to affect thousands!  Had I turned my back on ministry in that season, I would not be writing what I am today and God would have had to use someone else to get this message to you and the countless others that have been positively impacted by this ministry in the subsequent years!  And that is exactly the impact that bitterness can have in your life as well.   You have destiny to fulfill, lives to impact and breakthroughs to experience, but bitterness can and likely will keep you from those victories and breakthroughs if you do not take authority over it!

 

Colossians 3:1-17 & 25

Amplified Bible (AMP)

Colossians 3

 ¹IF THEN you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

    ²And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.

    ³For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.

    ⁴When Christ, Who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in [the splendor of His] glory.

    ⁵So kill (deaden, ^[a]deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God).

    ⁶It is on account of these [very sins] that the [holy] anger of God is ever coming upon the sons of disobedience (those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will),

    ⁷Among whom you also once walked, when you were living in and addicted to [such practices].

    ⁸But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips!

    ⁹Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old (unregenerate) self with its evil practices,

    ¹⁰And have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process of being] renewed and remolded into [fuller and more perfect ^[b]knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him Who created it.

    ¹¹[In this new creation all distinctions vanish.] There ^[c]is no room for and there can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, [nor difference between nations whether alien] barbarians or Scythians [^[d]who are the most savage of all], nor slave or free man; but Christ is all and in all [^[e]everything and everywhere, to all men, without distinction of person].

    ¹²Clothe yourselves therefore, as God’s own chosen ones (His own picked representatives), [who are] purified and holy and well-beloved [by God Himself, by putting on behavior marked by] tenderhearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, [and] patience [which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper].

    ¹³Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has [freely] forgiven you, so must you also [forgive].

    ¹⁴And above all these [put on] love and enfold yourselves with the bond of perfectness [which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony].

    ¹⁵And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ's] one body you were also called [to live]. And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always].

    ¹⁶Let the word [spoken by] Christ (the Messiah) have its home [in your hearts and minds] and dwell in you in [all its] richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom [in spiritual things, and as you sing] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with [His] grace in your hearts.

    ¹⁷And whatever you do [no matter what it is] in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in [dependence upon] His Person, giving praise to God the Father through Him…

    ²⁵For he who deals wrongfully will [reap the fruit of his folly and] be punished for his wrongdoing. And [with God] there is no partiality [no matter what a person's position may be, whether he is the slave or the master].

This third chapter of Colossians in the New Testament expresses exactly who we need to strive to be and why.  I encourage you today to search your heart and see if you have harbored bitterness inside of you.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you who you have held bitterness against and then choose to release that bitterness.  Lives are hanging in the balance, not the least of which is yours!

Even if, right now that seems like a task that may be impossible for you to do, remember, if you have the desire to be free from it, you can be!

Philippians 4:13

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹³I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who ^[a]infuses inner strength into me; I am ^[b]self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].

On your own, you may not feel that you have the strength, but in Christ you are ready for anything that comes your way!  Be encouraged, you can and you WILL overcome!

He gives you sweetness for bitterness… I’m living proof!